Fabian Cancellara added another piece of silverware to his already impressive collection as he won the Paris-Roubaix cobblestone classic today.

Collapsing to the ground after his huge effort, Cancellara took a moment to recover and savour his 3rd victory in Paris-Roubaix:  “I was in another world of riding!” Cancellara explained on the team website.  I still don’t know how I did it.  I was dropped and pretty far back but then I started to move up.  This is a race you can never give up on until the end.  I had to play with him [Vanmarcke] in the end because I tried to go away but he followed so then I knew it was man against man.  I’m happy for the team and for me.  Now I look forward to rest and a holiday. Mission accomplished,” said a satisfied Fabian Cancellara.

Cancellara’s original move came with 50 km to go when he upped the pace from a chase group and began the process of selection.  An impressive Zdenek Stybar stayed with Cancellara as they chased down Vanmarcke and Stijn Vandenbergh but crashes took the Omega Pharma-Quick Step teammates down, leaving the battle to be fought between Cancellara and Vanmarcke (Blanco).  

With his Tour of Flanders win last week, Cancellara headed into the race as the all-and-out favourite and in the position of having everyone ride against him. “It’s amazing having a third victory.  When I see how in this race everyone was against our team, against me, I just had to do a selection.  The team came into a little bit of difficulty because we lost a few guys because of bad luck.  But that’s Roubaix.  It’s always nice to win alone but today there was pure fighting until the very end.  I could not believe it when I crossed the finish line.  My legs and my head wanted to bring me here.”